Michelle Donelan MP Q&A

Joe McCann, operations manager at Melksham News, talks to Michelle Donelan.

JC: Michelle, thank you for coming in and speaking to Melksham News. It’s been a while since we spoke, so great to have you back. Just before we start, we are meeting today in the fantastic new campus, have you had the inaugural swim yet?

MD: Thanks Joe, it’s great to be back speaking to the Melksham News. I have done the tour and seen the amazing facilities they have here, but haven’t had the chance to use any yet, it is on the list of things to do!

JC: Good, well let’s dive right in. What do you receive the most correspondence regarding?

MD: The top issue that people of Melksham are contacting me about, unsurprisingly, is cost of living. My key role I think is really making sure people know about all the support that is available and that they are accessing that support.

Also, people want a thriving high street; it is incredible that Melksham has so few empty shops at the moment, which I think is testament to the pride people have in the town, how they vote with their feet. They do shop locally, but we do need to continue to support the high street and I am really passionate in getting some more money in to level up Melksham town and getting more regeneration.

I have been working very closely with the local Conservative councillors, particularly Phil Alford, about how to get that investment into the town from a council level and also a government level.

I sponsored the bid to get government money in to regenerate Melksham House; what that money would have meant – and we’re still in the running for it – is that then the money the council have allocated can be used elsewhere in Melksham town.

Another issue that does come up quite a lot is public services access to doctors, dentists, schools.

It’s great news we are getting a new school in Bowerhill, which I know Cllr Holder has been on the case of and we got the clarification of that this week, which is fantastic.

But we do need to make sure that we prioritise infrastructure as well as making sure that if we’re building new houses, we have the infrastructure to go with them.

I am fully aware that doctors’ surgeries have been a problem, particularly in Melksham, for a number of years and I have contacted what was formerly known as Wiltshire Clinical Commissioning Group. I regularly talk with them around issues in Melksham and I have a regular correspondence with surgeries in Melksham.

JC: You mention infrastructure, since 2019, there has been around 1,100 houses built in Melksham. When we spoke before, you felt there should be a bypass, but maybe not in its current guise in regards to route. If the bypass doesn’t go ahead, what else can be done to relive traffic in Beanacre?

MD:My views on the bypass, aren’t because I don’t get the issues those in Beanacre and Lacock, which is used as a rat run, are facing, far from it, I do, that’s why I think something does need to be done to alleviate those problems.

I don’t think that the preferred route that is on the table for Melksham bypass, is in the best interests of Melksham or in fact anywhere in the long run because you will end up in years to come with two very busy roads.

It’s a very extensive ring road we are talking about, that will be very expensive, costly to the tax payer and you could raise questions over whether that is needed with the cost-of-living crisis.

The government will do those sums; it’s not a decision I get to take, or the council for that matter. It will have to go through a business case review later this or next year, which will give more clarity.

There are various initiatives that could be taken to support Beanacre, ones that I have raised with the council; things that could be done at the moment. Of course, each of those cost money, and I know that there are lots of communities that want additional funding; my job as the local MP is to champion things in my constituency.

This is genuinely a good cause here and it has to go through a body to assess those initiatives. I have been working with the local councillors’ team to push forward some of those ideas and I will keep local residents posted on the progress made.

JC: We have spoken before about the provision of more services running from Melksham Hospital. Melksham News did a Freedom of Information request and found in Bath RUH alone there were 30,000 appointments last year for people from the SN12 postcode area. Do you think it’s time for a proper medical facility at the site of Melksham Hospital?

MD:I absolutely agree, and if you can share those FOI results with me, please. We have already raised this with the Minister. I have already spoken with what was the Clinical Commissioning Group to support their bid to get investment into Melksham Hospital, to do just that, so we are waiting on news on that.

I will be meeting the Health Minister in the next few weeks to discuss this case because I agree and we all know Melksham has expanded so substantially over the last few years and that does increase the level of demand.

It doesn’t make sense for people to be doing long journeys to Bath or Swindon to get medical treatment that they could get much closer, which is better in terms of time, environment and cost for the user.

I am massively in favour of this campaign, I am happy to meet with others involved to update them on my progress, I am going to keep pushing on this one.

JC: Local dentistry is in a difficult place at the moment; Melksham News spoke to one of the local dentists, they currently have a 500-person waiting list, a three-month general appointment wait time; they cannot take on new patients and are down two members of staff, but can’t recruit due to Brexit. What is going to be done to fix the dentistry problems we have?

MD:It’s not good enough is it? I met with a Bradford on Avon surgery this week and it was a similar picture they presented. Dentists it seems can make more money as private dentists than in the NHS so they are losing to the private sector, they are losing dentists to London and they are trying to sponsor dentists from abroad because it is allowed under Skills Migration to bring those individuals in, but they are finding those people brought in want to go to bigger cities than to rural towns.

I will take this up with the Minister and raise that we are struggling locally. I have raised this before and there was a pot of money, around £4million just for Wiltshire, to help boost our dental provision, this does fill my inbox quite a bit. I know people are struggling to get on those waiting lists and then being unable to get appointments, that can have devastating consequences.

This is something I am picking up with the Health Minister, everyone in Parliament is aware of the issues. This is something that wasn’t helped by Covid because obviously dentist treatment was something that had to be stalled for a long time, which led to more backlogs. I will update as soon as I can.

JC: You recently ran a careers fair in Chippenham and I know students from Melksham Oak attended. With the loss of Cooper Avon, we will have 350 job seekers locally. What are you doing to make Melksham an attractive place to invest in and create more jobs?

MD:Well, I think it already is an attractive place for businesses to locate to and we know that because a number of businesses in the community are thriving.

We know that Gompels is; we know that Knorr Bremse is; we just got the new BMW showroom, which had its official opening the other week. There are more and more jobs coming into Melksham and in many ways, it’s bucking the trend.

It’s great in terms of location in the South West and London; it’s cheaper than other areas like Reading for example.

It is however very sad news about the closure of Cooper Avon. It is iconic and I know some local people whose families have been working there for generations and it’s part of the fabric of the town.

I have met with the company, to discuss the redundancies; they will ensure they give as much support as possible to employees. I will monitor and ensure that is happening.

A number of companies at the careers fair spoke to me saying they possibly have space for some of the employees facing redundancy. But I appreciate being made redundant is terrifying, especially as cost of living is going up, so this is not a desirable outcome in any way.

But I do think Melksham is really a place to locate to for business and businesses are seeing that and anything I can do to spread that message I will. I meet with businesses every week and all I hear is positivity. The challenge they face is filling their jobs, some are unskilled but others are skilled, so that speaks volumes for people looking for employment in the local area.

JC: It’s pretty much clear we will have a Melksham, Devizes, Bradford on Avon constituency, splitting your current constituency. Where will you stand and what criteria do you use when choosing?

MD: It’s really hard, it does split my constituency in half and it’s almost like choosing between children. I genuinely love my constituency; I work day in, day out to serve it as best I can and I am genuinely passionate about the areas and communities I represent and the people I have met along the way, so the thought of losing any of those bits is really upsetting.

I stood to be the MP of this community and now I have to make a decision which section of that I am going to represent. I haven’t made the decision, it’s really hard and in some ways, it would be easier if I didn’t have the choice given to me. But I will let you know as soon as I know.

JC: How difficult is it as a Cabinet Minister and being a local politician. Do the two roles interact well?

MD: People ask me this quite regularly, I definitely think it’s better to be in Cabinet; you literally have a seat at the table where key decisions are made and you can use your voice effectively; and being active in the local community in Wiltshire means that I know what constituents are telling me about what they want and I know what I believe will help our local area.

Being in the Cabinet means that I have a closer working relationship than some other MPs with some of those key decision makers in each department.

Having been an MP now for over seven years, I know how the system works a bit better.

I was a Whip at one stage as well, so I know where I can push, how I can push and how I can get those changes made, often before legislation even comes to the House, that’s much more effective. I am always trying to meet with Ministers with different portfolios and raise the issues that are coming to me.

JC: On a national level, do you think politicians should have more accountability. I reference the mini budget, Liz Truss and Kwasi Kwarteng put though which left a reported £34 billion black hole.

MD:I think in general, accountability for Members of Parliament is high. Obviously, we have the ultimate check, which is in the ballot box every General Election, but we get scrutinised every day on social media, our emails, our correspondence; if we make mistakes, they are very public and there is no hiding from them.

Of course, in terms of the specific example you use, a lot of that mini budget was reversed, by Liz Truss herself. Then following, we have Rishi Sunak. I agree that mistakes were made, and I think Liz Truss would agree and Kwasi Kwarteng did as well.

Now it’s a time to look forward; the priority needs to be stabilising the economy, getting inflation down, making sure interest rates don’t continue to rise as we know that has an effect on working people; and we have seen in the budget which has focused on trying to get stability back, but also long-term growth and injecting money into our public services, like our NHS, like our schools, which I have been fighting for years.

JC: The pension markets collapsed, people lost money on their pensions, there were people who couldn’t get a mortgage during the mini budget period, and people who are now paying more for a mortgage. I appreciate there are global factors, however a lot of these costs were driven by the mini budget; what do you say to those people who lost money or are paying more?

MD: So, I don’t think the situation we find ourselves in is because of the mini budget. Did it help? No, and certainly those decisions have had to be reversed. But you do have to remember what has fuelled the problem we have at the moment; we have the economic after-shock of Covid; we do have the war in Ukraine with Russia, which has pushed up a lot of prices. We’ve seen energy costs rise across the globe.

We know that two-thirds of the G20 have got inflation rates above 7%, so this is not just a problem unique to the UK. This is a global problem and one which we are trying to tackle, and help people through this difficult period, with a number of different initiatives, including the energy price guarantee, the extension to household support fund, the triple lock for pensions.

These are all initiatives to try and help people through what is going to be a really difficult winter. Anyone who is struggling in Melksham, are they sure they are getting the benefits they are entitled to, are they aware of the household support fund?  Please send me an email and we can double check for you, it can be confusing, and it is a really stressful time at the moment, I do appreciate that.

JC: There have been criticisms of the language used in Parliament; do you feel politicians need to think more before they speak? Do you feel that language drives and fuels the trolling and hate-filled comments?

MD:I think everyone has a duty to use their words carefully and be responsible for the words they use. But I don’t think we should be giving anybody the excuse to abuse. Do individuals have the right to criticise and critique, challenge, oppose? Absolutely, I am somebody who brought forward the Free Speech Bill in universities, and I strongly agree people should be able to do that. Should they be able to threaten them or their families’ lives? No. Can they hide behind the language and rhetoric that others have used? No. But we all have to be responsible for the words that we use, just as we do for the actions we take.

JC: There seems to be an approach on never admit a mistake; we have had denials around party gate, the mini budget and a number of other recent events. Do you recognise that?

MD:I think it’s a good thing for a government and politicians to listen, I think it would be far worse if they ploughed on regardless. What we have seen is MPs apologise for what has happened. When Rishi Sunak did his first speech on the steps of Downing Street, he did acknowledge the mistakes that had been made and that he was changing course on certain things. It is good for politicians to be listening. We serve the public; if the British public don’t agree with everything we’re doing, then we do have to change course and our decision-making process.